July 14, 1940

The War of the Unknown Warriors

Churchill broadcasts “The War of the Unknown Warriors”

He chose Bastille Day to refuse any negotiation with Germany — and opened by explaining why Britain had just fired on the fleet of its defeated French ally.

Bastille Day, from London

Winston Churchill delivered the BBC broadcast now titled 'The War of the Unknown Warriors' from London on 14 July 1940. A contemporary recording survives, running about seventeen minutes.

Its first substantial subject was not defiance but the French fleet. Churchill defended Britain's recent action against French warships, arguing that the armistice could have put those ships within Germany's power, and promised not to molest French vessels that stayed away from German- or Italian-controlled ports.

Speaking on France's national day, he predicted a liberated France and said Britain was fighting by itself but not solely for itself.

“We shall ask for none”

On the threatened invasion he declared: 'we shall seek no terms, we shall tolerate no parley; we may show mercy — we shall ask for none.'

He described plans to defend every village, town and city, and gave figures: 1.5 million under arms in the Army, more than a million in the Home Guard, more than 1,000 armed ships under the White Ensign.

He asked listeners to prepare not merely for the coming winter but for 1941 and 1942.

What the broadcast was not

It did not proclaim 'total war' — Churchill promised resistance and a long war, not a new legal or economic state. Nor did it establish his government: the all-party coalition had been formed on 10 May 1940.

The title comes from the closing passage, about service by ordinary people whose names would never be known and whose deeds would never be recorded.

By the following day, overseas newspapers were reproducing his refusal to negotiate and his warning that Britain awaited a German assault without fear.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited

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